In fact, when he had woken up in his hotel room in Rome on the morning of Aug. 24, he had no idea why his cell phone was lighting up with text messages asking if he was safe, no idea of the destruction that had occurred not all that far away. Garvin soon learned that, while he and his teammates on the Bryant University men’s basketball team slumbered, at about 3:30 in the morning local time, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake had shaken central Italy into devastation. Several hundred people were reportedly killed and thousands more trapped beneath the rubble as whole towns were destroyed in a matter of seconds.

The epicenter of the quake was determined to be near the town of Accumoli, about 70 miles northeast of Rome, where Garvin — a Bryant senior and a former two-time All-State player at Bethel High School — was staying with his teammates as they embarked on a 12-day tour of Italy.

The tour included three basketball games against Italian teams, along with plenty of sightseeing and cultural experiences in a very beautiful country — and, fortunately, one very-near-miss with catastrophe in a country which has been ravaged by earthquakes — including quite a few of greater magnitude — throughout its rich history.

“Fortunately, we weren’t too close to where the earthquake really hit,” Garvin said in a phone interview Wednesday, several days after the team had returned safely home. “My roommate and I didn’t even feel it, but on the higher-up floors (of the hotel), some of our coaches felt the shaking.

“My parents actually found out before I did,” Garvin added. “I woke up to text messages asking if I was ok, and I was like ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Why? What happened?’”

The team continued its tour in the aftermath of the quake, with some modifications. The first game it was scheduled to play was canceled because the floor of the gym in which they were set to play had broken apart in the quake.

The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience in several ways. Off the court, the players had the chance to immerse themselves in the history of the country and marvel at the remnants of an ancient civilization.

“The history is mind-blowing,” Garvin said. “The fact that they build the Coliseum at the time period that they did was great. Just wrapping your head around those types of things, I don’t even know how to explain it.”

On the court, however, it was strictly business.

“It was a great way to bond with my teammates,” Garvin said. “The first team we played was a very good team, one of the best in Italy. Being able to play them and see how we matched up was really productive. We have a better understanding of how we are as individual players as well as how we play as a team.”

Garvin played in only one of the three games in Italy, as he hyperextended his knee in the first game and was relegated to the sidelines for the other two games. It’s nothing serious, he said, and he doesn’t expect to miss any action. That’s good news for the Bulldogs, who will be counting on him to help lead the way this season with a promising recruiting class coming in.

“Overall, it’s a very strong class that gives us exactly what we needed,” Bryant coach Tim O’Shea said in a story posted on the Bryant athletic department website. “When you combine this group of players with last year’s class, along with the return of guys like Dan Garvin as a senior, Hunter Ware as a junior and Gus Riley, to name a few. That makes me feel confident that we have the pieces in place to make a serious run at a league title.”

The Bulldogs will be looking to improve upon it’s 8-23 record from a year ago.

“Obviously, last year we didn’t have such a great year, but everyone’s bought in, from what I can see right now, especially the freshmen,” Garvin said. “It’s a matter of getting that mindset where we’re not going to go through the same type of experience that we had last year.”

Garvin, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward, averaged 10.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game last year.